I sprinted inside toward Savannah, but Dai was faster. He pulled her into him, wrapping his right arm around her neck. Only his thumb was still attached to his right hand.
“Had a little accident,” he said nonchalantly, watching my horrified stare. He used his left hand to hold the fire blade against Savannah’s stomach, though he didn’t turn it on.
“Dai, let her go,” I yelled.
“Calm down, Ryen,” Dai said coolly. Savannah looked straight at me with no spark of recognition. She didn’t even blink.
“What have you done to her?” I yelled.
“Please give me a moment. I need to confer with the healer,” he said, pulling Savannah toward Tien, who was still crouching in the corner.
“How long does she have?” he whispered to Tien. The healer assessed her quickly.
“A few hours at best. She’s a walking corpse,” Tien said.
“You lie!” I yelled furiously. Mateo and Chase caught my arms and held me back.
“All right, Haven,” Dai said. “It looks like you have a choice to make. I’ll give you back your human, and you let us leave with a bit of a head start. Or you can kill me with the stipulation that I gut the human before you can reach me,” he said, lightly pushing the dull blade into Savannah’s stomach. Blood pooled around the point of it. “Do we really need to waste time wondering what you’ll choose? You seem like the type who really loves a lost cause.”
“I’ll find you wherever you go. I’ll hunt you down,” I said viciously.
“Consider me warned,” he said flippantly. “Do we have an agreement? The human for a head start?”
I nodded, keeping my eyes trained on the blade Dai was threatening to push into Savannah’s stomach.
“All right, Tien, please make your way to the transport.” Tien dropped lithely from the window. A few seconds later, the transport below whirred to life. It rose into the air to the level of the window.
“Until we meet again,” Dai said, with a nod of his head. He pushed Savannah toward me. I caught her in my arms just before she hit the floor. Dai jumped onto the nose of the transport, swung into its open window, and disappeared.
“Find him!” I yelled. Guards dispersed in different directions, either barking or listening to orders from their earpieces.
I swung Savannah up into my arms and ran back to Tribunal Hall, with Mateo and Chase clearing the way before us.
The hall was still chaotic, but a hush came over the crowd when I entered and yelled for help. Healers ran toward the podium, where I stood with Savannah still in my arms.
Zio, head of the healers, made it to the front first. A tattoo of a majestic tree ran up the length of his spine, the top of which adorned his scalp. Thick branches shot across the back of his ribs and shoulders. A flock of birds leaving their nest at the top of the tree covered his forehead and ran down his face and neck and across his chest. Four other similarly marked healers followed carrying heavy cases.
One of the healers produced a fiber net with which she covered Savannah’s head. A three-dimensional hologram of Savannah’s brain appeared in the air a few inches above. Zio studied it carefully.
If Savannah were really hurt, she would bleed, she would scream. She wouldn’t be lying so peacefully, I hoped.
“She’s fine, she’s fine,” I said quietly in my own tongue and then switched to English. “Savannah, you are going to be fine.”
“Savannah, you are going to be fine,” she parroted back in the exact same tone. Her eyes stood wide open, unblinking.
“Brain tumor. Small, easily extractable,” Zio said, satisfied.
“Brain tumor. Small…” Savannah started. Zio plunged a syringe full of light pink liquid into her arm. Seconds later, she went limp.
“She’s sedated. Let’s get out of …” He trailed off. “Stop. Something’s changed.” He used his hands to manipulate the hologram floating above Savannah’s head. “There’s three tumors now. They weren’t there a few second ago. Is there something wrong with this machine?”
“No, Zio. It’s brand new,” another healer said.
“They weren’t there,” he said.
And then it hit me. Emani had told me how Obedience worked.
“The tumors will spread, multiply, and get larger,” I said frantically.
“All the more reason to get her to Healing Tower immediately.” He slipped a brace over her head, securing it in place. “Healers, lift on my count.”
“Stop! You can’t help this human,” an angry voice yelled from the audience. “It belongs to no tribe. It is Unnamed. Our laws forbid healers to help any Unnamed.” Though I didn’t take my eyes off Savannah, I heard many voices call out in agreement.
“It’s one less human we have to worry about!” another shouted. This time, I looked up.
“It?” I spat at the angry crowd. “It is the same as you or me! We are all God’s children!”
“Stop, everyone!” Aurik cried out from behind me. The room quieted. “We will not let this young one die. That is not who we are.” He turned to me and put his light hand on my shoulder. “But she does need to be marked and claimed by a tribe, Ryen. It’s the law.”
“Four tumors!” Zio said impatiently. The woman on his right took notes as he whispered to her about the impending surgery.
“Will any tribe claim the girl?” Aurik shouted above the whispers.
“I’ll claim her,” I yelled.
“You don’t have that authority,” he said quietly, still looking onto the floor of the hall.
“Aurik, we don’t have time to—”
“We will claim her!” a familiar voice answered. My father, along with the other holy men and women of the Haven tribe, fought their way toward us. He held a container of ceremonial stain in his hands.
“Father!” I cried out. I didn’t have the authority to claim her, but he did. “Hurry!” I looked frantically from him back to Savannah, who was in the process of dying quietly. Blood vessels burst in her eyes like shooting stars. She couldn’t hold out like this much longer.
“Five tumors!” Zio called out, still taking measurements.
“Savannah, they are going to bless you, to claim you a Haven so that the healers can help you. Can you hear me?” I asked. No response. I felt delicate hands on my shoulders; my mother and sister had arrived.
“I’m ready,” he told me. “Translate for her.”
With the glowing, silvery paint, he drew the symbol of the Haven tribe on her forehead with his finger. The eastward constellation of stars that first led us toward Earth.
“Savannah.” He said her name with reverence. “We know not what came before this life.” He made the mark of the first two stars. “We know not what comes after.” He dipped his finger into the small jar again and drew the third and fourth. “But for these precious moments in eternity, you are ours, a Haven, until our God calls you home.” He kissed the last mark, sealing the blessing, and nodded at Zio.
“Now!” Zio commanded. I was pushed to the side so that the healers could lift her all at the same time. The flurry of activity around her moved swiftly away from me and out of the hall before I even had time to stand.